IF YOU’RE NOT HERE
written by: Norberto Franco Cisneros
My sleeping flesh awakens with your touch.
My dead flesh resurrected slithers towards its own fate
a fate destined to immolate itself with no absolution
Because you won’t be here to love me.
Caterpillars butterflied resuscitate and fly
toward their short-lived destiny.
In my aging memory,
what seemed an endless romance quickly became a fading image,
and fit within the lifespan of a monarch butterfly.
I grab at my paper to write love lyrics to you
of my fantasy love universe filled with glorious dreams of us
basking in those love filled days.
It was in the summertime, if you remember, when alligators
emerged to sun themselves and run wild looking for pieces of liver
I put out for them under fragrant magnolia trees.
It was at one of those sunny mornings
when alligators and butterflies appear
and cicadas were singing
That you spoke to me for the last time.
With every word, I saw the flowers in your hair die, and
your wordy petals float in the air to lacerate my soul,
cutting deep down to my bone
Revealing a chilling truth:
If you’re not here to love me, then
My flame of eternal hope has died, and
Time is not a friend I can count on.
- Earth, Last Hope - August 8, 2024
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